Council to vote on magistrate positions

July 11, 2013

MARTINSBURG - An ordinance to reorganize the City of Martinsburg's magistrates comes up for its third and final reading tonight during the City Council's regularly scheduled monthly meeting.

If approved, the ordinance would create a chief magistrate's position and two part-time magistrates. Now, there are three part-time magistrates.

The vote on the first and second readings of the ordinance during last month's council meeting were 5-2. Councilmen Kevin Knowles and Jason Baker voted no.

Knowles said he voted against the ordinance because he believes the full-time magistrate and two part-time magistrates will cost more than the existing three part-time positions.

"We're changing a part-time position into a full-time position - I don't believe we can save money doing that," Knowles said in an earlier interview.

He also believes the magistrates should be elected. Now, they are appointed by the mayor with the consent of the council.

Baker objected because he wants the magistrates to be elected, not appointed. He said that with the reorganization, it would be a good time to change the positions from appointed to elected.

"The public should have a choice on this. The chief magistrate is someone with a lot of responsibility," Baker said in an earlier interview.

During a committee of the whole meeting in May, council members agreed to restructure the magistrate staff to save money, with Knowles and Baker dissenting.

Most of the council members felt that with part-time Magistrate Margaret Walker leaving to take over the Eastern Panhandle Community Traffic Safety Program, it was good time to make the change.

Now, the three part-time magistrates hold court in city hall on Monday and Wednesday evenings. The hallways fill up with individuals wanting to appear for court. They can wait as long as two hours for their case to be heard.

The full-time magistrate would be on duty from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days a week. The two part-time magistrates would be on call and would fill in if the full-time magistrate could not fulfill his or her duties.

By keeping regular business hours, there would be less police and civilian overtime, a police aid position would be eliminated and one part-time magistrate pay would be eliminated, amounting to an estimated $60,664 in savings, according to information provided by the city.

The full-time magistrate's pay, including benefits, would be an estimated $56,733, for a total savings of about $4,000, according to the information.

Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. tonight in the J. Oakley Seibert Council Chambers, city hall, 232 N. Queen St.